If you got injured in Albany, GA, through no fault of your own, you don’t have to suffer financially. You can recover money to pay for your medical bills, missed paychecks, and ongoing recovery costs. You need to talk to a personal injury lawyer in Albany as soon as possible.
John Foy & Associates has two decades worth of experience helping injured people. Let us offer you a free consultation to discuss your claim and show you how we can help. Call us at (404) 400-4000 and schedule your appointment today.
What Can I Do to Protect My Rights As a Personal Injury Victim in Albany, GA?
Until you have hired a lawyer to handle your case, it’s up to you to be your own advocate and guard your legal rights. We recommend two critical steps for anyone who has suffered an injury that wasn’t their fault.
Never Accept the Initial Offer
Insurance companies seem helpful and cooperative when they offer you money in the first days after your injury. But don’t fall for this trick. Insurance companies don’t like to pay out any more money than they absolutely have to. Their offer of “quick cash” is just to tempt you into signing away your right to more money.
They do this because they know you haven’t had a chance to find out how much money you might really need to pay for your treatment and lost work time. So, never accept a check, sign paperwork, or make a statement to the insurance company without talking to a lawyer.
Get in Touch With a Personal Injury Attorney
A personal injury lawyer regularly handles claims by injured people. An experienced lawyer will be able to tell you how strong your claim is and will have connections to doctors who can evaluate your injuries and predict what they will cost in the long term.
A lawyer will help you get the information you need to evaluate an insurance company’s offers, and a lawyer will investigate your case and negotiate for you. Don’t underestimate or undervalue the benefits solid legal representation can provide to winning your case.
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Our Personal Injury Lawyers Will Help You Win Your Case
Our personal injury lawyers in Albany, GA, have the experience and dedication needed to win you fair financial compensation. We can help you in various ways.
Gathering Evidence and Proving Fault
Even though the Official Code of Georgia Annotated (OCGA) § 51-1-6 entitles you to file a claim, that doesn’t mean you don’t have to prove it. You will still need strong evidence and documentation that prove that the at-fault party was responsible.
We will help you gather critical evidence such as witness testimony, medical records, and official reports of your accident. From there, we will ensure that they get seen by the insurance company and that they feel the pressure to pay you the compensation you need.
Calculating Your Damages
It can be confusing to know how to calculate your damages. You don’t want to end up leaving anything out of your settlement. Our personal injury lawyers use various formulas and know precisely how to calculate the amount your settlement should be worth. We won’t leave out a single penny and ensure that you get the maximum amount.
Handling All the Legal Work
Filing a claim, negotiating for a settlement, and potentially going to trial can be exhausting. However, after suffering an injury, the last thing you need is a legal headache impeding your recovery. Let our personal injury lawyers handle all the work for you while you prioritize your health and healing.
How do I Know If I Have a Valid Personal Injury Claim?
After an injury, many people react by blaming themselves for being clumsy. Or they think the accident was just unlucky. But that’s not how the law sees your accident. Legally, most accidents are caused by someone’s negligence.
This means that someone was not as careful as they weren’t paying attention, breaking the law, or neglecting a legal duty. You have a valid claim when someone is negligent, even if the negligent person didn’t mean to hurt anyone. The negligent person is legally liable, and their insurance company must pay your costs.
Negligence is the basis of many common types of injury claims, including these:
- Car, truck, and bus accidents
- Slip and fall injuries
- Accidents involving pedestrians or bicyclists getting hit by a car
- Mugging injuries
- Injuries caused by nursing home neglect
- Defective products
- Dangerous medical devices
- Harmful medications
This list isn’t complete. Our Albany, GA, personal injury lawyers can help you recover compensation for virtually any type of accident. As long as there was a negligent party involved, we can help you with your case.
Damages You Can Recover After a Personal Injury Accident
There are many damages you can receive compensation for. Here are just a few that are the most common:
- Lost wages and reduced earning capability
- Vehicle repairs or replacement
- Property damages
- Medical expenses
- Pain and suffering
- Mental anguish and emotional trauma
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Loss of consortium
- Disability or disfigurement
- Wrongful death
As long as your damages were related to your injury and accident, you can factor them into your settlement. Don’t ever let the insurance company try to downplay your injuries and damages. Always pursue the amount that reflects them accurately.
Do I Have to File a Lawsuit for My Personal Injury Claim?
We rarely have to go to court to get our clients the money they deserve. Occasionally, however, an insurance company is stubborn and won’t negotiate with us unless we file a lawsuit. Insurance companies have their own lawyers, who may overestimate the insurance company’s chance of winning at trial.
If this happens in your case, we will give you our honest opinion about your chances of winning in the local courts. It’s up to you whether to file a lawsuit at that point. If you do take your case to court, we have top-notch litigation lawyers who will represent you all the way.
Usually, we negotiate with the insurance company and resolve your case before any court action ever gets filed. Then, we do our own investigations, recreating what happened and finding out exactly what injuries you have and what they will cost. We can then present solid evidence to the insurance company, frequently winning a large financial recovery.
How Much Will a Personal Injury Lawyer Cost in Albany, GA?
An injury can mean a lot of financial uncertainty for you and your family. So, we don’t think it’s right to ask you to pay up-front for a lawyer. You may wonder how much it costs to hire one of our personal injury lawyers in Albany, GA, and how we get paid.
We have a payment structure that guarantees you won’t have to pay anything up-front:
- You can come in and consult with us at no charge.
- We will not charge you anything out of pocket for our legal help
- We will not charge you at all unless we win money for you
If we do recover money in your case, we’ll deduct our fee as a percentage, and everything else is yours. This lets you put a professional on your team without forcing you to take yet another financial risk.
Georgia’s Statute of Limitations for Personal Injury Claims
The City of Albany, GA, follows strict deadlines set by federal and state laws. These deadlines, known as “statutes of limitations,” are essential because if you file your claim after the statute of limitation expires, it will probably get dismissed in court. You will not get another chance to recover money for your injuries.
OCGA § 9-3-33 gives personal injury victims two years from the date of their accident to file a claim. Unfortunately, many people procrastinate and wait until the last minute to file their claims. Don’t do this, as this puts your case at unnecessary risk.
But not every case has the same time limit. Statutes of limitations vary depending on the facts of your accident. There’s a good chance you have two years to file your claim, but it’s also possible that you’ll only have a few weeks.
Talk to an Albany, GA, Personal Injury Lawyer for Free
At John Foy & Associates, our entire law practice is devoted to helping people who have been injured. Let us show you how we can put our 20 years of experience to work for you. We’ll sit down with you to talk about your injuries and answer your questions.
Call our Albany, GA, personal injury lawyers at (404) 400-4000 or fill out the form to your right and get your free consultation today.
229-232-8678 or complete a Free Case Evaluation form